Sources said in an e-auction conducted on Wednesday for Hotel Asian in central Delhi, NDMC has fetched approximately Rs 45.5 lakh per month as licence fee making it the highest earning property for the agency at present.

While the reserve price for the property was fixed under Rs 10 lakh per month, the 15 bidders ensured that NDMC saw a jump in its licence fee revenue, which reached around Rs 5.5 crore per year, sources said. Earlier, the same hotel gave revenue of Rs 3 lakh per month.

The auction became possible only after NDMC managed to put an end to legal tangles with the previous owner, who was evicted from the property on court orders. In 2014, the hotel came under HC’s scanner when the Chief Justice-led bench questioned the civic body why it allowed the hotel to operate for seven years after its lease expired.

HC was alarmed that “the premises known as Hotel Asian International” had a virtual free run during this time and had ordered a probe, asking the then chairperson of the Council to conduct an inquiry. The court had broadened the scope of its investigation while hearing an appeal by NDMC, filed late, against a single judge’s order favouring the hotel operator who was granted a licence for using a seven-storey building in 1977 at a licence fee of approximately Rs 35,000 per month.

When the licence lapsed in 2007, the hotel got a stay from a civil court against eviction and sought for renewal. When the estate officer fixed a much lower rent than NDMC wanted in 2007, the owner moved court seeking directions to NDMC to accept the rent.

This saga was finally laid to rest on Wednesday when NDMC got a market driven price as monthly licence fee. This is likely to impact other larger luxury hotels that pay much lower licence fee than Rs 5.5 crore per year.

For instance, the plot area of Hotel Asian is 0.151 acre, while Le Meridien is sprawled across 4.29 acres and Taj Mansingh is spread across 3.78 acres. NDMC sources said the current licence fee of Le Meridien and Taj Mansingh — which is a subject matter of high profile litigation in HC — is roughly Rs 2.7 crore and Rs 3.02 crore per year, respectively.

NDMC’s move to auction Taj Mansingh was cleared last year by the HC but subsequently stayed by Supreme Court, which will now take the final call. Le Meridien’s licence fee dealings with NDMC are being probed by CBI on allegations of corruption.